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This collection has access restrictions. For
details, please see the
restrictions.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival
material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are
physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available
through the World Wide Web. See the
Duplication Policy section for more information.

William Harmon, poet and professor of English at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Correspondence, writings, and other materials of William
Harmon.
Included are letters to Harmon from various English and American writings, primarily
poets and
critics. Also included are letters, writings, a family history, and other materials
from Theresa
Garrett Eliot, wife of Henry Ware Eliot, T. S. Eliot's brother. Harmon's writings
include drafts
of
The Classic Hundred,
A Handbook to
Literature
,
The Top 500 Poems, and other works. There
are also manuscript and printed essays and poems. Unintegrated additions contain considerable
material relating to Laura (Riding) Jackson, as well as correspondence and writings
similar to
those in the original collection. Please note that additions received after February
1995 have
not been integrated into the original deposits. Researchers should always check additions
to be
sure they have identified all files of interest to them.

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and are currently
not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact
Research and Instructional Services staff. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed
materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants,
as
stipulated by United States copyright law.

Provenance

Received from William Harmon of Chapel Hill, N.C., in December 1990, December 1991
(Acc.
92003), December 1992 (Acc. 93016), January 1995 (Acc. 95001), January 1996 (Acc.
96002),
December 1997 (Acc. 98007), and September 2000 (Acc 98741).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or
confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy
laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. §
132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of
State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.).
Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to
identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent
of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under
common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's
private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable
person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no
responsibility.

The following terms from
Library of Congress Subject
Headings
suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the
entire collection; the terms do
not usually represent
discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or
items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's
online catalog.

Correspondence and other materials sent to William Harmon, poet and professor of English
at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from various English and
American writers as listed below. These files include letters, poems, works of fiction,
critical essays, and other material related to the correspondent.

The Eli Waldron files, for example, include letters from Waldron,
copies of Waldron's many essays and poems, and letters about him after his death.
These
latter, some of which were written by his wife Marie Waldron, are
concerned with the possibility of posthumously publishing Waldron's collected works.
Similarly, although the Laura (Riding) Jackson file contains no
correspondence from the poet, it does contain information about her death, as well
as letters
and memos from Theodore Wilentz,
RenéVanDeVoorde,
Elizabeth Friedmann,
Cathie Brettschneider, and others about settling Jackson's literary
estate.

Other substantial files include those of George Core,
J. F. Nims,
Robert Morgan,
Cleanth Brooks,
Fred Chappell,
Michael McFee,
Theresa Eliot, and Albert Goldbarth. Miscellaneous
and unidentified correspondence is included at the end of this series.

Mostly drafts of works Harmon edited, such as the 6th edition of
A
Handbook to Literature,
The Classic Hundred (formerly
The
Concise Columbia Book of Poetry
), and
The Top 500
Poems
(formerly the
Columbia Book of Poetry). Also
included are satirical essays written by Harmon and Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
These essays, grouped as "Harmon and Rubin," include material
for "The Norton Reader," which was apparently never
published, and for the
Uneeda Review, which was. Miscellaneous
essays are included at the end of this series.

Folder 409

Folder 410

Unintegrated addition. Additions received after February 1995 have not been integrated
into
the original deposits. Researchers should always check the original listings and each
addition to be sure they have identified all files of interest to them.

1939-1997.

Materials relating to Laura (Riding) Jackson, materials relating to a
proposed anthology of poems by Americans born between 1935 and 1945,
materials relating to the writing of an article on English versification,
and other correspondence and materials. The materials relating to Laura (Riding) Jackson
include five versions of
Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the
Definition of Words
by Laura (Riding) Jackson and Schuyler B.
Jackson, textual editing by Anne and William Harmon; correspondence and other
material having to do with the business of the Board of Literary Management of the
Estate of
the Late Laura (Riding) Jackson; and photocopies and typescripts of poems and essays
by Laura
(Riding) Jackson. Correspondence and other materials include letters, poems, essays,
and
other material from various English and American writers as listed below.

folder titles and descriptions of contents are taken, for the most part, from Harmon's
"Inventory of Materials Donated to UNC-CH Library, 12/97."

Unintegrated addition. Additions received after February 1995 have not been integrated
into
the original deposits. Researchers should always check the original listings and each
addition to be sure they have identified all files of interest to them.

1960s-2000.

Correspondence, writings, project files, and other materials. Included are correspondence
files, as detailed below, which also contain related materials, particularly short
writings
and poems that were sent to William Harmon by friends, professional colleagues, and
students.
Also included are Harmon's writings (unorganized) and related materials; a group of
files
that focus on books Harmon produced for the Columbia University Press,
among them
The Top 100 Poems,
The
Columbia Granger's World of Poetry
, and
The Anthology of
Anonymous Poems
; materials relating to the
Handbook to
Literature
, 5th-8th editions (1986-2000), which Harmon produced with C.
Hugh Holman; Laura (Riding) Jackson materials; files
relating to
The Oxford Book of American Light Verse (1979); and materials
relating to Phi Beta Kappa awards, 1998-1999.